Sunday, November 08, 2009
Food, In this Issue..., Reviews, Atlanta

Cottage industry

Café di Sol is no shrinking violet

By H.M. Cauley

Over the last 10 years, Mike Burdick’s restaurant career has been getting smaller—on purpose. In early 2000, he was overseeing the cavernous Cabernet, a big-space, big-dollar steakhouse in Alpharetta. He then moved to co-owning the more modest Mosaic in Buckhead, with a scaled-back menu and wine list served up in a small cottage of multiple dining rooms. Now he’s running Café di Sol, another intimate spot even smaller than Mosaic, with a single dining room, covered front patio and a modest menu of Mediterranean-inspired dishes.

“I’ve been in this business 19 years, and I think this is my 24th restaurant,” says Burdick. “I’ve done the 280-seat places, and I’ve been around long enough to know you can have a much better time in a smaller venue that allows me to have more of a presence. I’m enjoying this restaurant more than any other I’ve owned.”

It’s easy to see why. This intimate space on North Highland Avenue (the former Carpe Diem) exudes charm and energy, from the covered patio overlooking the sidewalk to the wood tables and colorful artwork around the small dining room.

“I walked in here and thought, ‘Wow, what a great vibe,’” says Burdick. “I immediately fell in love with it. It’s eclectic and funky but with lots of neighborhood charm.”

Perhaps the best feature of Café di Sol is that neighborhood chumminess. On a recent Friday night visit, the locals were mingling with visitors on the patio and digging into a range of dishes priced at no more than $20.

Chef Andy Long is the brains behind the kitchen. One of his best dishes is on the appetizer list: A slow-braised ropa vieja, bites of beef atop warm red tortilla chips and drizzled with a cilantro sour cream. Just a bit spicy, just a bit sweet, the pieces are a must for the start of a Café meal. Another tasty treat is the fried mozzarella, a dish that could have been boring but comes to life with a lemon and walnut pesto and a Puttanesca sauce of anchovies, capers, olives, tomatoes and garlic. There’s also a tuna tartar served over grilled corn and butterbeans; calamari with a citrus chili sauce; and mussels with leeks in a red curry broth. Pair any starter with a selection of cheeses that can be passed around the table: The “drunken goat” comes soaked in red wine alongside Vermont cheddar, Spanish bleu and Spanish smoked sheep cheese. In fact, most of the appetizers qualify as small plates that lend themselves to sharing, so if you’re not hungry enough for an entree, there’s plenty of choice among the smaller options.

You’ll find lighter fare on the salad and sandwich board. Big bowls of greens are served with feta and olives, iceberg wedges or topped with grilled steak. A tabbouleh and veggie salad suits the non-meat lovers, thought they might be won over by the burgers smothered in shiitake mushrooms, Gruyere cheese and garlic aioli. Sandwiches of turkey, blackened chicken salad, mahi mahi and roast beef are also served.

The appetizers may boast more of a Mediterranean touch than the main courses, but the big plates have their own flavors. The angel hair pasta is topped with asparagus, red peppers, squash, zucchini, tomato and a lemon-walnut pesto. Tuna also gets the veggie treatment, surrounded by corn, red peppers, onions, asparagus and a smoked paprika oil. The short entree list also features chicken with veggies in a garlic broth; scallops with corn and pea succotash; hanger steak with house fries; and cedar plank salmon.

After the dinner crowd moves on, the café still draws a crowd to the bar and the dessert menu, where the best bets are Key lime cheesecake, cranberry bread pudding and vanilla and buttermilk panna cotta.

Keeping the café reasonably priced is a major Burdick goal. “When other places are raising their prices, there is always the temptation to do the same,” he says. “But we don’t want to hit anyone up for an extra 50 cents. We want people to think of us as their neighborhood place where they can come back often and still afford to eat here.” SP